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A review by vernip
The Gospel of Loki by Joanne M. Harris
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
You can do a straight up textbook if you like. (Edith Hamilton's Mythology)
You can do a humorous fanfic aimed at middle-grade readers if you like. (Rick Riordan's Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer)
But straightforward tales of the shenanigans of the Norse pantheon told in story format are pretty rare, with the only other one I've read being penned with Neil Gaiman's wit and quirky charm (Norse Mythology, both in blocks of text form AND graphic novel form!).
So this one that has Loki as the main character and narrator is pretty darn exceptional. If you put aside linguistic anachronisms & poetic licensing to put Loki in more events he wasn't typically a part of, it really puts into focus how these stories continue to be entertaining as heck and how these characters stand the test of time.
What I really appreciate is a believable timeline for all these tales since sometimes you hear lil inconsistencies in other sources that make you scratch your head and think "wait wut?" since some stories have Thor beat up the giant who made Asgard's walls with Mjolnir...when he shouldn't have the hammer yet because of the situation with Sif's hair & Loki getting the uber gifts.
And to be honest, we've seen authors over the years CON~STANT~LY try to paint the trickster in a sympathetic light; heck the scribes at Marvel have been doing that for decades, making him as anti-hero as Magneto or Venom. This one is no different with a lot of the earlier stories establishing he feels SO MUCH like an outsider, but later in the book the struggle is depicted as whether he's the fated villain because of prophesied destiny or if it's because of his own chaotic nature.
Great read and now contemplating if I want to see what the sequel is about since, spoilers, Ragnarok happens in this book and what else is there to tell after that?
You can do a humorous fanfic aimed at middle-grade readers if you like. (Rick Riordan's Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer)
But straightforward tales of the shenanigans of the Norse pantheon told in story format are pretty rare, with the only other one I've read being penned with Neil Gaiman's wit and quirky charm (Norse Mythology, both in blocks of text form AND graphic novel form!).
So this one that has Loki as the main character and narrator is pretty darn exceptional. If you put aside linguistic anachronisms & poetic licensing to put Loki in more events he wasn't typically a part of, it really puts into focus how these stories continue to be entertaining as heck and how these characters stand the test of time.
What I really appreciate is a believable timeline for all these tales since sometimes you hear lil inconsistencies in other sources that make you scratch your head and think "wait wut?" since some stories have Thor beat up the giant who made Asgard's walls with Mjolnir...when he shouldn't have the hammer yet because of the situation with Sif's hair & Loki getting the uber gifts.
And to be honest, we've seen authors over the years CON~STANT~LY try to paint the trickster in a sympathetic light; heck the scribes at Marvel have been doing that for decades, making him as anti-hero as Magneto or Venom. This one is no different with a lot of the earlier stories establishing he feels SO MUCH like an outsider, but later in the book the struggle is depicted as whether he's the fated villain because of prophesied destiny or if it's because of his own chaotic nature.
Great read and now contemplating if I want to see what the sequel is about since, spoilers, Ragnarok happens in this book and what else is there to tell after that?